The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself | Teachinghistory.org The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself Question Where did the line in FDR’s First Inaugural Address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” come from? Did he write it? Answer Columbia University professor Raymond Moly wrote most of Roosevelt’s speech, and talked over his initial drafts with the president-elect. Several days before the inauguration, Moly delivered a typescript of his final draft to Roosevelt, who was staying at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. Roosevelt went over the speech then with Moly and copied it out in longhand. The line about “fear itself” was not in the speech at that point. Before leaving FDR’s hotel suite, Moly burned his typewritten draft in the fireplace. Louis Howe The next day, former newspaperman and Roosevelt’s long-time close confidante, Louis McHenry Howe, arrived in Washington.

According to Howe’s assistant Lela Stiles, a few days previously, Howe had talked with a newspaperman and friend about difficulties that the country faced, and during the conversation Howe told his friend, “I don’t care what else Franklin says in his inaugural address as long as he tells the people that the only thing they have to fear is fear.” When Howe arrived in Washington, FDR gave him his handwritten draft of the speech. Howe made his own changes and additions and had a secretary type a new draft. One of Howe’s changes had been to add the line, “So first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itselfnameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes the needed effort to bring about prosperity once again.” FDR liked Howe’s addition, but then, on the draft, changed the end of the sentence, from “to bring about prosperity once again” to “needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” These were the words he used when he delivered the speech several days later at the inauguration, on March 4, 1933. FDR liked Howe’s addition, but then, on the draft, changed the end of the sentence.

The Health of the Nation, the Health of FDR Roosevelt’s revision of Howe’s sentence was in keeping with the revisions that he and Moly had made to earlier drafts. One of the guiding metaphors in the first versions of the speech had turned on comparing the country’s economic condition to a sickness, but Moly had ultimately decided that Roosevelt would be better able to inspire the nation to profound and wide-ranging action if he did not compare it to an invalid, but rather to an army preparing for war. The imagery of sickness in the early drafts yielded therefore to martial language in the last drafts. FDR’s change of Howe’s sentence followed along with this. Nevertheless, the new version of the sentence still refers to fear and a rejection of being "paralyzed." Whatever else FDR conveyed to his listeners with this sentence, a message of reassurance about his own health was surely part of what they heard. Concerns about whether his polio had incapacitated him had sometimes surfaced during the election campaign and two weeks before the inauguration he had avoided the bullets of a would-be assassin.

Frances Perkins, who served as FDR’s Secretary of Labor, reminisced in 1946, more than a decade after the speech, about Roosevelt coming to terms with his having contracted polio in 1921. She wrote, “He learned in that period and began to express firm belief that the ‘only thing to fear is fear itself.’ He never displayed the slightest bitterness over his misfortune.” Perkins was a little unclear here about whether she was referring specifically to Roosevelt in the decade before he became president, and whether she really meant to place the exact phrase “the only thing to fear is fear itself” in his mouth during that time. Henry David Thoreau? If Roosevelt had in fact often expressed those words, it is difficult to understand why his closest colleagues and even his wife Eleanor did not assume that he had thought them up himself and inserted them into the inaugural address, but looked elsewhere for the ultimate source of the expression. When FDR’s associate and sometimes-speechwriter Samuel Rosenman asked Eleanor about the expression, she ventured that her husband may have found something very much like it in a volume of Henry David Thoreau’s writings, which she thought he must have had with him in his hotel suite in Washington.

Thoreau had written the sentence, “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear,” in his journal entry for September 7, 1851, in passing, as part of his comment on his contemporaries’ criticisms of Harriet Martineau’s arguments for atheism in her just-published Letters on the Laws of Man’s Nature and Development. Ralph Waldo Emerson later quoted his young friend approvingly, and the phrase was indeed included in later collections of Thoreau’s writings. Newspaper Ad? Professor Moly, however, pointed directly at Louis Howe as the proximate source, and doubted that Howewhose reading habits focused on detective novelshad found the Thoreau quote. He later told William Safire, “I do clearly remember that the phrase appeared in a department store’s newspaper advertisement some time earlier in February. I assume that Howe, an inveterate newspaper reader, saw it too. …" To Howe’s everlasting credit, he realized that the expression fully fitted the occasion.” "To Howe’s everlasting credit, he realized that the expression fully fitted the occasion." Moly's reference to department store advertisements sounds like the campaign used by Wanamaker’s.

During the first few months of 1933, Wanamaker’s department store placed large display ads in The New York Times. The ads included a small box with inspirational messages of business and commercial platitudes or sentiments “from the founder’s writings,” those of John Wanamaker, who sometimes quoted people like Benjamin Franklin or George Washington. I do not see any of ads for the first two months of 1933 in which Wanamaker quoted Thoreau or anyone else expressing precisely the statement about “fear itself,” nor do I see a quote of Wanamaker venturing the phrase himself. However there are many platitudes there about confidence, cheerfulness, a positive attitude, persistence, honesty, and integrity. Perhaps Professor Moly saw an ad that I have been unable to locate. Diagnosing the Health of the Nation's Businesses The phrase “The only thing to fear is fear” did have some currency at the time among businessmen. Julius Barnes, the Chairman of the Board of the National Chamber of Commerce, for example, gave a news conference in early February announcing the organization’s effort to promote efforts to stabilize business suffering during the depression. The conference was reported by The New York Times on February 9.

One of the subheadings of the article was “Fears Most Fear Itself,” and quoted Barnes as saying, “In a condition of this kind, the thing to be feared most is fear itself. Confidence, tempered with prudence, is necessary to the operation of even the most perfect business mechanism. The retarding effect of a sense of insecurity is promptly communicated from worker to consumer, from consumer to producer and the whole machine stalls, and the anticipated evil becomes.” Many in the business community were in fact convinced that the country was suffering from a kind of psychic sickness, caused not by systemic problems in industry or banking, but by the nation’s irrational lapse into fear, which had caused an economic paralysis. It was the fear itself that needed to be exorcised. FDR’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover, also often spoke in this way. By this metaphor, the nation was an invalid who had been afflicted with a mental problem, a paralysis of action. Its thinking somehow had to be turned around, toward a positive confidence. By changing the patient’s thinking, his body would naturally recover his mobility. The nation needed a mental healer. The nation needed a mental healer.

New Thought This sounds rather like the frame of reference of the quasi-religious “New Thought” or “Mind-Cure” or “Mental Science” Movement that blossomed in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As William James described it in his 1929 work, The Varieties of Religious Experience, “The leaders of this faith have had an intuitive belief in the all-saving power of healthy-minded attitudes as such, in the conquering efficacy of courage, hope, and trust, and a correlative contempt for doubt, fear, worry, and all nervously precautionary states of mind.” The movement was defined not so much by an organizational form as by the common assumptions and themes of a group of writers who specialties included what we would today called “alternative medicine,” speculative psychology, and inspirational literature. Their writings are dominated by perorations on healing and success. The business community, then as now, had a fondness for “motivational” speaking and writing, especially as it might make a sales force more effective. It is likely not an accident, therefore, that the head of the Chamber of Commerce would be diagnosing the chief of the nation’s problems as fear.

In fact, the precise phrase, “The only thing to fear is fear,” occurs in the 1908 book, Thought Vibration; or, the law of attraction in the thought world, written by New Thought writer William Walker Atkinson. He counseled, “Remember, the only thing to fear is Fear, andwell, don’t even fear Fear, for he’s a cowardly chap at the best, who will run if you show a brave front.” In 1918, Atkinson wrote The Power of Concentration under the pseudonym of Theron Q. Dumont, in which he declared, “There is no justification for the loss of courage. The evils by which you will almost certainly be overwhelmed without it are far greater than those which courage will help you to meet and overcome. Right, then, must be the moralist who says that the only thing to fear is fear.” Another “New Thought” writer, the “naturopathic doctor,” Henry Lindlahr, wrote in his 1919 book, Practice of Natural Therapeutics, “Avoid fear in all its forms of expression; it is responsible for the greater part of human suffering.

The only thing to fear is fear.” Businesses had invoked these precise sentiments around the time they were published, during the domestic economic pinch prevalent during World War I, for example. On the 4th of July, 1917, the musical instrument firm of Edward Droop and Sons in Washington, D.C., paid for a large display ad in The Washington Post, under the large headline, “The Only Thing to Fear Is Fear.” The firm’s ad continued: We refuse to be perturbed by the alarmists, the pessimists and by the timid who see things at night. As prophets in the past they have a batting average of about .001. The only times they have hit the truth is when they themselves created the conditions they feared by fearing them. Our slogan during these earnest times is “Keep Business Going.” We shall retrench in nothing, cancel nothing, fear nothing. Our faith in the existing and eternal prosperity of the United States of America is immovable. … We believe that this is the very time of all times that you should buy what you wantwhether it be in our line or in any other. The only way to stop your business is to stop the other fellow’s. The only thing to fear is fear.

The phrase “The only thing to fear is fear” and its variants, therefore, were demonstrably “out there” in circulation within the business community during the first few decades of the 20th century. William Safire makes the point that it does not really matter where the phrase came from because it was FDR that used it during his speech to inspire the nation and it was he, therefore, who transmuted the linguistic coin into rhetorical gold. For more information "Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself": FDR's First Inaugural Address talking history | syllabi | students | teachers | puzzle | about us “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: FDR’s First Inaugural Address Franklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned against Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election by saying as little as possible about what he might do if elected. Through even the closest working relationships, none of the president-elect’s most intimate associates felt they knew him well, with the exception perhaps of his wife, Eleanor. The affable, witty Roosevelt used his great personal charm to keep most people at a distance. In campaign speeches, he favored a buoyant, optimistic, gently paternal tone spiced with humor.

But his first inaugural address took on an unusually solemn, religious quality. And for good reason—by 1933 the depression had reached its depth. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address outlined in broad terms how he hoped to govern and reminded Americans that the nation’s “common difficulties” concerned “only material things.” Please note that the audio is an excerpt from the full address. Listen to Audio: Your browser is unable to play the audio element. Try updating to the latest version of your browser. I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it.

Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men. Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously.

It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources. Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it.

We must act and act quickly. Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency. There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States. Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment. The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer.

It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure. In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors. If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems. Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure. I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less. We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life. We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York: Random House, 1938), 11–16. FDR "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - Archival Footage - YouTube FDR "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - Archival Footage Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Mar 1, 2013 During his inauguration speech U.S. President Franklin D.

Roosevelt declares, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Most recently this clip was used in the Google Nexus 7 ad "Fear Less" which shows a kid that struggles with Glossophobia yet overcomes his fears with the help of these wise words from FDR: You too can license this clip from t3licensing.com: Tennessee 4 Me - What did Roosevelt mean by "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? The Great Depression & WW II What did Roosevelt mean by "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? By saying this, FDR was telling the American people that their fear was making things worse. He goes on to say, “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” By running to the banks and taking their money out they were causing more damage to the economy. Closing banks for several days and calling Congress back to Washington for a special session gave the American people and government time to calm down and make recovery plans. What does the phrase: "There's nothing to fear, except fear itself" mean?How do you feel about the idea of fear? and how do think the phrase ...

| eNotes April 1, 2010 at 12:32 AM Fear is a powerful emotion that can cause people to behave badly. Fear of the unknown caused the Puritans to believe in witchcraft and led to the destruction of many lives. This is an example of allowing fear to overtake your whole being, so that a person will do anything he/she has to in order to quit being afraid. On the other hand, I don't believe admitting that you're afraid is bad as long as you don't allow it to control you. Fear can be a positive motivating factor as well. I have a senior student who had slacked off at the beginning of the semester. His grades fell greatly, and he was told he might not graduate. His fear of not graduating with his classmates and of disappointing his parents motivated him to do extra assignments, to come to school every day, and to get his homework in on time. I don't know if you've been reading or listening to the news about the fifteen-year-old girl from Ireland who committed suicide due to bullying, but I think this is a perfect example of how fear can have a positive and a negative effect.

I believe people who bully others are cowards who are afraid of being picked on or embarrassed themselves. They allow their fears to cause negative results. Those who are being harassed are also afraid to have to deal with the bullying on a daily basis. Their fear, rightfully so, becomes the motivating factor in their lives. The young, Irish girl's fear of being further harassed resulted in her death. Hopefully, however, something positive will come from this situation. It has brought the situation of bullying in our schools to the forefront, and now something can be done to make schools, parents, and students more responsible. FDR used this phrase to positively motivate American society to remain hopeful instead of giving up. If we become too afraid, we then allow others to control us, and we no longer have control of our own lives. FDR wanted to inspire Americans to respond to a bad situation by doing something positive and not allowing their fears to keep them from reacting at all. like 2 dislike 0 April 1, 2010 at 12:34 AM The quote is from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 inaugural address from 1933.

Here is the whole quote: So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. And yes, the historical context is the great depression. Roosevelt was warning against the kind of fear that paralyzes the population and prevents individuals from making positive steps to extricate themselves from a bad situation. What was saying is: Go out and spend some money... go to a movie, buy some ice cream, give a friend a job, help your neighbor. Don't let fear force you to cower in the corner doing nothing; this will not help you or the economy. Now, of course, there are times when fear can be a reasonable response to a situation and hiding oneself away can be an act of survival, but an economic depression, according to Roosevelt, is not such a time. like 1 dislike 0 March 31, 2010 at 11:48 PM This phrase was invented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was one of his responses to the problems of the Great Depression.

He was trying to tell people that their fears were contributing to the bad outcomes that they feared -- sort of a vicious cycle. As far as how this relates to the idea of fear, I suppose that the main thing it tells us is that fear feeds on itself. Once we come to be afraid of something, we convince ourselves to be more and more afraid of that thing. like 1 dislike 0 Presidents of the United States - President Franklin Roosevelt - TheUSAonline.com Presidents of the United States Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945), often referred to as FDR, was the 32nd ( 1933 - 1945) President of the United States. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms of office - the only U.S. president elected more than twice, and part of the reason the United States Constitution was amended to limit presidents to 2 full terms (8 years). His main contributions were the instituting of major economic and social assistance programs in response to the Great Depression, leading the country through a successful involvement in World War II, and the formation of the United Nations. Order: John N.

Garner ( 1933 - 1941 ) Henry A. Wallace ( 1941 - 1945 ) Harry S. Truman ( 1945 ) Biography He was born on January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York , and died on April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving the famous Unfinished Portrait . He suffered from polio at the age of 39, which left him with severe difficulty in moving his legs. He often used a wheelchair, but took efforts to hide this disability throughout his life. In fact, there are only two known photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair. When a statue of Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair was commissioned in Washington, DC in 2001, some criticized this as unnecessary political correctness.

From the age of one, through until 1936, Roosevelt spent his summers at Campobello Island, New Brunswick but because of his worsening polio, in later years he had to spend much of his time in Warm Springs, whose namesake warm springs provided him and others relief from their symptoms, and where he built the Little White House, now a Georgia state historic site. He also created the town's Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, which continues to help others with disabilities to this day. He graduated from Ivy League Harvard University in 1904, and from Ivy League Columbia Law School with a J.D. in 1908 before taking a job with a prestigious Wall Street firm. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt , a distant cousin, who was the favorite niece of Theodore Roosevelt, his fifth cousin. They would have six children: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt May 3 , 1906 - December 1 , 1975 James Roosevelt , December 23 , 1907 - August 13 , 1991 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.

, March 18 , 1909 - November 1 , 1909 Elliott Roosevelt , September 23 , 1910 - October 27 , 1990 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. , August 17 , 1914 - August 17 , 1988 John Aspinwall Roosevelt , March 13 , 1916 - April 27 , 1981 Government Positions include: Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913 - 1920 ; Governor of New York, 1929 - 1933. In the 1920 election Roosevelt was a candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the Democratic ticket with James M. Cox.

Roosevelt's Presidential campaign in 1932 saw the New York governor committing himself to battling the Great Depression, promoting a platform with "Three R's - relief, recovery and reform." He coined the term " New Deal " when he stated: "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." On February 15 , 1933 after his victory in the 1932 election, President-elect Roosevelt was nearly assassinated in Miami, Florida (the assassin did manage to kill Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak ). In reference to the Great Depression, Roosevelt proclaimed "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" in his inauguration speech on ( March 4 , 1933 ). Roosevelt's first weeks in office were called The Hundred Days, as during the first part of his administration he authored and approved a flurry of Congressional acts to institute immediate change and keep the nation's economy from destabilizing. He insituted a four-day "banking holiday" two days after he took office: a four-day period in which all banks in the country closed, allowing the institutions a brief period to recover and reorganize.

During this time of crisis Roosevelt addressed the nation for the first time as President on March 12, 1933 in the first of many " Fireside Chats." Of the various reform programs initiated by the Roosevelt administration, the most far-reaching and influential was the institution of the Social Security system, a form of welfare that was meant to provide support for low-income and elderly citizens. In 1935 - 1936, the Supreme Court, which was dominated by conservatives with a narrow view of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, the basis of much New Deal legislation, struck down eight of FDR's New Deal programs. In response Roosevelt submitted to Congress in February of 1937 a plan for "judicial reform," which proposed adding a justice for every justice over the age of 70 who refused to retire, up to a maximum of 15 total. This came to be known as his attempt to "pack" the Court. Though the plan failed in Congress, as a threat to the Court it may have had its desired effect. In a move cynically referred to as "the switch in time that saved nine," one of the conservative justices inexplicably shifted his vote in West Coast Hotel Co.

v. Parrish , changing the ideological balance of the Court. It wasn't long before time allowed Roosevelt to further have his way on the bench, as vacancies allowed Roosevelt to eventually fill all nine seats with his appointments--the most of any presidency except George Washington 's. In 1937, Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th , following adoption of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Prior to this, presidents had been sworn into office on March 4th . Campaigning for re-election in 1940 against Wendell L. Willkie , Roosevelt said that he would not send American boys to fight in foreign wars. However, in 1941 the conflicting interests of Japan and the United States in Asia and the Pacific , especially in China , resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic relations to the point where war seemed inevitable (see entry for Hull note ). Some have suggested Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and welcomed it as a way to get the U.S. into World War II. Others point out, that while U.S. code-breakers had broken Japanese codes in Washington, D.C.

and knew something was about to happen, communication delays prevented the messages from getting to Pearl Harbor until 4 hours after the attack. On May 18, 1942, Roosevelt wrote a private letter to William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, in which he discusses that the USA and Canada agree on an unwritten plan aiming to disperse French-Canadians in order to assimilate them more quickly. On January 14, 1943 Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office with his flight from Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II. The meeting was concluded on January 24. In hindsight, perhaps the most controversial decision Roosevelt made was Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the internment in concentration camps of 110,000 Japanese nationals and American citizens of Japanese descent on the West Coast. Considered a major violation of civil liberties , it was even opposed at the time by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover , Eleanor Roosevelt as well as many other groups. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Executive Order.

Others have criticised him for failing to do anything to disrupt the Nazi operations in perpetrating the Holocaust despite having intelligence of the atrocity. Some have said of all the American Presidents of the 20th century, that he was the most loved and most hated. He was so well known, he was referred to by his initials, FDR. Historians have often cited him as one of the three United States Presidents whose influence and leadership set a standard for greatness, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln . Roosevelt was the first President to regularly address the American public through the medium of radio. He instituted a tradition of weekly radio speeches, which he called "fireside chats." These "chats" gave him the opportunity to take his opinions to the American people, and they often bolstered his popularity as he campaigned for various changes. During World War II the fireside chats were seen as important morale boosters for Americans at home. One speech he is famous for delivering was his State of the Union Address in 1941. This speech is also known as the Four Freedoms Speech.

His address to Congress and the nation on December 8, 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbor entered history with the phrase, "December Seventh, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy." He was elected to an unprecedented fourth term on November 7, 1944, beating Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. However, during the painting of his portrait, he died of a brain hemorrhage on April 12, 1945 and was succeeded by his vice president Harry S. Truman. In 1951 the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, which limited all presidents from that point forward to two terms (this was previously just a custom that was established by George Washington and followed by every president up to Roosevelt). Roosevelt's portrait appears on the U.S. dime.

Agencies founded during Roosevelt's Presidency Tennessee Valley Authority (1933) Hugo Black (AL) August 19 , 1937 - September 17 , 1971 Stanley Forman Reed (KY) January 31 , 1938 - February 25 , 1957 Felix Frankfurter (MA) January 30 , 1939 - August 28 , 1962 William O. Douglas (CT) April 17 , 1939 - November 12 , 1975 Frank Murphy (MI) February 5 , 1940 - July 19 , 1949 Harlan Fiske Stone (Chief Justice, NY) July 3 , 1941 - April 22 , 1946 James Francis Byrnes (SC) July 8 , 1941 - October 3 , 1942 Robert H.

Jackson (NY) July 11 , 1941 - October 9 , 1954 Wiley Blount Rutledge (IA) February 15 , 1943 - September 10 , 1949 Franklin D. Roosevelt | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Franklin D. Roosevelt Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression as our 32nd President (1933-1945), Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York--now a national historic site--he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt. Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat.

He won election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920. In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as "the Happy Warrior." In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York. He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first "hundred days," he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed. In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate the economy. Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked.

When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war. Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled. As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. For more information about President Roosevelt, please visit The Fireside Chats - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com The Fireside Chats A+E Networks Introduction President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in early 1933, would become the only president in American history to be elected to four consecutive terms.

He would lead his nation through two of the greatest crises in its history—the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-45)—and would exponentially expand the role of the federal government through his New Deal reform program and its legacy. From March 1933 to June 1944, Roosevelt addressed the American people in some 30 speeches broadcast via radio, speaking on a variety of topics from banking to unemployment to fighting fascism in Europe. Millions of people found comfort and renewed confidence in these speeches, which became known as the “fireside chats.” Google Roosevelt’s First Hundred Days As a rising young politician from New York , Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio in 1921. After being completely paralyzed for a period of time, he remained permanently confined to a wheelchair but did not give up his dreams of a political career. In 1928, he was elected governor of New York, and four years later he won the Democratic nomination for president. In the general election, Roosevelt received some 23 million popular votes, compared with only 16 million for the Republican incumbent, Herbert Hoover . Did You Know?

Though he worked with speechwriters, Roosevelt took an active role in creating the chats, dictating early drafts and reading aloud revisions until he had almost memorized the text. He was said to be fond of ad-libbing, explaining why official versions of his speeches often vary from the actual recorded version. By the time Roosevelt took office in early March 1933, the American economy had declined to desperate levels, with banks in failure, industrial production crippled and more than 13 million people unemployed. In his first inaugural address, Roosevelt sought to impart a new sense of confidence for the struggling nation, declaring that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” During its first several months, famously labeled “The Hundred Days,” Roosevelt’s administration presented a broad array of measures to Congress aimed at jumpstarting America’s economic recovery–these would become the building blocks of his revolutionary New Deal . One of his earliest actions as president was to declare a “bank holiday,” or a period during which all banks would be closed until they were determined to be solvent through federal inspection. Addressing the Public In combination with the bank holiday, Roosevelt called on Congress to come up with new emergency banking legislation to further aid the ailing financial institutions of America.

On March 12, 1933, he took one more important step, delivering a relatively informal address on the banking crisis that would be broadcast over the radio. In that first speech, Roosevelt praised the “fortitude and good temper with which everybody [accepted] the hardships of the banking holiday.” The holiday, as well as the radio address, seemed to have the intended effect: When the banks opened again, the panicked “bank runs” that people had feared did not materialize, showing that public confidence had been restored in some measure for the time being. During the 1930s, well before the advent of television, some 90 percent of American households owned a radio. Seeing the potential of mass media to communicate directly and intimately with the public, Roosevelt would give around 30 total radio addresses from March 1933 to June 1944. The topics he spoke about ranged from domestic issues such as the economic policies of the New Deal, drought and unemployment, to Europe’s battle with fascism and American military progress in Europe and in the Pacific during World War II .

By the Fireside Roosevelt was not actually sitting beside a fireplace when he delivered the speeches, but behind a microphone-covered desk in the White House. Reporter Harry Butcher of CBS coined the term “fireside chat” in a press release before one of Roosevelt’s speeches on May 7, 1933. The name stuck, as it perfectly evoked the comforting intent behind Roosevelt’s words, as well as their informal, conversational tone. Roosevelt took care to use the simplest possible language, concrete examples and analogies in the fireside chats, so as to be clearly understood by the largest number of Americans. He began many of the nighttime chats with the greeting “My friends,” and referred to himself as “I” and the American people as “you” as if addressing his listeners directly and personally. In many of the speeches, Roosevelt invoked memories of the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln or other inspirational figures from America’s past. “The Star Spangled Banner” was played after each chat ended, underlining that patriotic message. Finally, the president appealed to God or Providence at the end of almost every speech, urging the American people to face the difficult tasks ahead with patience, understanding and faith.

Through depression and war, the reassuring nature of the fireside chats boosted the public’s confidence (and Roosevelt’s approval rates) and undoubtedly contributed to his unprecedented number of election wins. Tags

Question: Which US President coined the phrase "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?
Answer: F D Roosevelt